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Jaime Fuller

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Vice-presidential debates often make for better TV than the more sober presidential face-offs. (If you’re not convinced, take a look at the Prospect’s video compilation of the best moments from the VP debates.) There’s been nothing in a presidential debate to match the delightful absurdity of a candidate—in this case, Ross Perot’s addled running mate, Admiral James Stockdale—introducing himself to millions of viewers by posing the existential puzzler, “Why am I here?” There’s never been a slapdown in the main events to equal the iconic moment when Lloyd Bentsen punished Dan Quayle like a naughty schoolboy for likening himself to JFK. And sadly, no presidential contender has yet found it a terrific idea, as Sarah Palin did in 2008, to wink at the camera. When Joe Biden and Paul Ryan take the stage tonight, the memorable moments are likely to be different—more about jobs and taxes and economic philosophies than “zingers." There’s every potential for a sizzling exchange, especially given...

Vice presidential debates are usually mere sideshows. But tomorrow’s face-off in Kentucky might be quite different. Barack Obama’s disastrous performance last week was the boost Mitt Romney needed to erase the president’s post-convention gains and turn the race into a genuine toss-up. The Republican has the momentum, and he’s shifted to more moderate rhetoric in an attempt to appeal to independent and undecided voters. Obama doesn’t get another crack at Romney until next week, so it’s up to Joe Biden to stanch the bleeding and resuscitate Democratic hopes. Biden has a reputation for blundering, but history suggests that he’ll be up to the task. This is the man, after all, who managed to destroy Rudy Giuliani’s presidential hopes with a single phrase—“a noun, a verb, and 9/11”—and was a more-than-capable debater in the Democratic primaries and against Sarah Palin. His populist style connects with a wide swath of voters; his Democratic National Convention speech was widely watched and...

It’s time to declare a national moratorium on Obama supporters watching poll numbers. Seriously: Nothing would do more to improve the nation’s collective mental health, right about now, than a mass tune-out of Nate Silver, Real Clear Politics, and every other outlet that spews and compiles and analyzes the data Obamians have taken to following with a maniacal and hysteria-inducing obsessiveness since last Wednesday's Worst Debate in the History of Mankind. To lead the boycott, we’d like to nominate poor dear Andrew Sullivan, the president’s most devout conservative admirer. Nobody has a more desperate need to step away from the mounting evidence that Mitt Romney’s post-debate chances of winning are much improved. Yesterday, when the notably reliable pollsters at Pew released a post-debate survey showing Romney leading by four points among likely voters, Sullivan had a good old-fashioned conniption fit on his blog, The Dish , concluding that "Obama has instantly plummeted into near-...

The oddest thing happened after Mitt Romney finally, emphatically, Etch A Sketched himself from flinty-hearted Ayn Randian into the spitting image of "compassionate conservative" George W. Bush in Wednesday’s debate: The right wing didn’t squeal one bit. Au contraire ! The same folks who celebrated Romney’s vicious "47 percent" rant, the ones who’ve been policing his every syllable to check for apostasies, the ones who’ve spent years howling at Bush for betraying conservative principles—these same people reacted to the reemergence of “moderate Mitt” like Baby Boomers at a Springsteen show. None other than Pat Buchanan hailed “the finest debate performance of any candidate of either party in the 52 years.” It was, gushed National Review ’s Rich Lowry, “the Mitt Romney we’ve been waiting for.” What could possibly explain this sudden cessation of demands that Romney pledge allegiance to right-wing extremism? Surely it’s not a sign that the 'wingers have decided that they’re happy to...

Today in Denver, 13 hours after he slumped off stage in inglorious defeat while conservatives set off rhetorical bonfires of celebration across the land, President Obama finally decided it was time to begin debating his opponent. At a post-debate rally that was more of a postmortem, Obama told dispirited Democrats that the previous evening "I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney. But it couldn't have been Mitt Romney,” because the real one “has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy. The fellow on stage last night said he didn't know anything about that." The president also delivered a line that could have partially rescued his unaccountably listless performance on Wednesday night: "Governor Romney may dance around his positions, but if you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth.” The truth was not exactly a challenge for Romney in the Denver debate; it was a theoretical...